


Slipping away peacefully

by twijfelaar



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, I just wanted her to have some peace at the end, So i gave it to her
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:20:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28244553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twijfelaar/pseuds/twijfelaar
Summary: When she leaves for home it is with a single purpose, with a single hope and a single fear.
Kudos: 11





	Slipping away peacefully

**Author's Note:**

> So I haven't written Fanfic in a very long time. so it is going to be rusty but I needed to give Elisabet some peace and hopefully I did.
> 
> Let me know what you think! I would really appreciate some comments.

The decision is easy really, she made the plan, she truly choose this, the others? The others got snatched and grabbed and they were presented with the illusion of choice. She needed them, for their minds and she was ruthless enough to take what she needed. In the months that they worked on the Zero Dawn project they have become her friends.

Even those she worked with before and had to leave because she couldn’t stand with them. Even Ted, she hates the man for what he did, for not listening to her, for being absolutely short sighted and consumed with greed, causing the destruction of earth and everything on it.

But he was her friend first, she misses the way they used to banter, to create, before greed took a hold of both their hearts and minds.

Yes she stepped away, but she will never forgot that for a some time she was part of the problem. She has created the problem, the threat, as much as Ted did, as much as any engineer did who created their own death machines, she is just as guilty as them.

She really should have paid more attention to her Ethics class back in college. 

“Gaia, how is the bomb door holding up?”

“Up to standard Elisabet. They will be safe inside.”

“Guess it is time to say goodbye.”

She shuts off her focus after, and takes a deep breath. She needs to start moving, she is sure she is enemy number one for the swarm and finding her close to a bunker is not going to keep Gaia hidden. She realizes she was serious about going home.

The home where she grew up, burned down a tree, where her mother taught her the most important lesson. Being smart will count for nothing if you don’t make the world better. You have to use your smarts to count for something, to serve life, not death. She knows that she has done both but her final project will hopefully make the world better, serve life even after she left it behind.

However she also brought death to this world and she figures she will be confronted by it every step of the way while finding her way back home.

She looks around, the world looks horrible and she can hear machine sounds in the distance, the sun has not been seen in ages, since before she went into the bunker but it has gotten worse. Finding her way home might prove to be the actual challenge, and if she does not make it, there is an easy way out, hidden in the suit.

The way down is not as hard as she thought, the suits helps, catching her tumbles and she has no time to think about what she did, what they did, while she is busy not falling to her death.But the mountain ends and the first thing she sees is fire, the earth is still burning. 

There must be some humans left, those who have suits and are going to take as many machines with them when they go down but the scene she sees before her is not one of human perseverance.

It is slaughter and she is happy her suit filters the air she smells because she does not want to know what this smells like.

She suddenly understands general Herres, the guilt he feels. This battle was a few months ago and the remains are still burning, both human and machine. She feels like retching but she keeps the last bit of solid food she had in.

They didn’t deserve this, they really didn’t.

She walks, she can hear machines still everywhere, in the air in the water, underground, they are everywhere but she is left alone. She doesn’t know why and how but she thanks whoever is willing to listen. 

The suit provides food and water, she rests for 15 minutes and dares not to fall asleep. By the time she arrives at her home she has seen what the world has become.

The machines roam it, but human fingerprints are still everywhere, buildings, cars, guns, tanks, all of it will stay on earth no matter how bad it gets. It is awfully ironic that humanity and the machines will die out eventually, but those manmade structures will always bear the mark on the earth. They will be left behind for possible future generations, to wonder and marvel at.

She gets to her home after a grueling trek from disaster area to disaster area. Her home is just another one, it got bombed, the house she grew up in is a shell of what it was. The bench where her mother taught her the most important lesson however is still standing. It is made from stone, sturdy and blackened by whatever fire that got close to it.

She takes a seat, her suit is reminding her, in the corner of her eye that she is in need of substances or else her body will fall to hunger, exhaustion and thirst and the death cocktail won’t be necessary. Even if her choice is limited she wants it to be hers so she prepares herself, no sense in waiting.

Her focus has been shut off for her travels, making sure she is not giving off any electrical signal that could be traced back to the bunker, but it is time to turn it on. She is sure she has VR file of her home somewhere, maybe she will even play a memory.

She turns the focus on and with a crackle it comes alive. She programs the suit to prepare the death cocktail and she sits and watches trees, birds, people that are not there anymore move in front of her eyes.

She sighs, the cocktail is ready and with the final okay the suit registers it in her system. It is a nice death she has been told, sleep will come first and after you will slowly fade away, her body is weak and the cocktail works fast.

“Doctor Sobeck?”

Someone is calling her name, she opens her eyes and in her vision a woman stands before her, one she does not know. Wearing a white coat and wearing a strange pair of glasses. Elisabet must be hallucinating.

“Yes?”

The woman smiles, tears appearing in her eyes.

“It is an honor to meet you Doctor. I don’t have long so I will keep it short.”

Elisabet can barely keep her eyes open but she is fighting, this is a nice hallucination.

“We just wanted to let you know, your sacrifice has not been in vain. Zero Dawn did its work. Humanity lives, prospers, all thanks to you and your friends. Mother of all, I wish you a comfortable end, with the knowledge that you have succeeded.”

A really nice hallucination.


End file.
